


No Good Deed

by thevillainofthisstory



Series: Marching Inexorably Forward [3]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: M/M, Pompous Pep, Sex Pollen, but no actual sex, sexual situation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 10:23:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12130410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thevillainofthisstory/pseuds/thevillainofthisstory
Summary: Vlad and Danny are trapped during a meeting of ghost hunters. While trying to sneak out, Danny accidentally gets covered in a pheromone based bait. Good thing there aren't any other ghosts around to take advantage, right?





	No Good Deed

**Author's Note:**

> This fic contains a sexual situation but no actual sex. No orgasms, clothes stay on, etc.  
> Thank you everyone who commented on the previous two parts, your support means a lot to me! One thing that I did want to mention in response to darkequidae's comment: yes for the most part things are canon but I did up Danny's age to 16-17. My rational is that each season represents one year of Danny in high school starting with freshman year and ending (as far as canon is concerned) in his junior year. I know that's not exactly canonical, but it's more sensible for me.

Danny felt like an idiot. Granted, Danny was used to feeling like an idiot. It was a constant in his life. The universe was out to get him pretty much every waking moment. Which is how Danny found himself in the hall closet of his own house, hiding. Hiding sounded so pathetic. Lying in wait, that sounded better. Lying in wait for his stupid archenemy to hang his coat up properly like he always did. And then Danny would pounce.

It was his parents’ turn to host the reunion party for their old fraternity Sigma Ecto Omega. Danny wasn’t sure who had come up with their name (he suspected it was his dad) considering ‘Ecto’ wasn’t even a Greek letter. Their charter consisted of pretty much everything his parents embodied: hunting ghosts for the good of humanity whether they were asked to or not. Surprisingly, the organization had a substantial number of members. There was a small army of ghost hunters in his basement ranging in competence from his parents all the way up to Vlad Masters himself.

That was the crux of his current issue. Vlad was a member and had agreed to make an appearance. Unfortunately, some of the members were actually decent inventors. It was easy enough to sabotage his parents’ stuff but the rest of it? There was no way he could explain why he was destroying the ‘Synthetic Ghost Pheromone Bait’ or the ‘Spectral Forcefield Zapper’ without  either giving himself away or getting into massive trouble. And Vlad was in just as much trouble as he was. Danny had run into the Zapper personally and it packed a punch; he couldn’t even get into the basement without suffering through some terrible shocks.

And that was just in his human form. Danny had reached into the fridge earlier to get a soda, phasing through the door out of habit. Suddenly there was an alarm going off and eight different people came rushing into his kitchen, guns literally blazing. Someone said something about a Specter Detector before they rushed off to find the source of ghostly energy. Danny couldn’t risk using any of his powers and he couldn’t let Vlad use his either. He was just as bad as Danny about using their abilities for every petty little thing.

So there he was, wasting a Friday evening hiding in a closet in his own house, waiting for his nemesis to arrive fashionably late. Danny wasn’t about to have his entire existence threatened because of Vlad’s poor social choices. The devices were too sensitive to risk it, and those were just the few Danny had happened to stumble upon. There was no telling what else was down there. Being ripped apart molecule by molecule would really interrupt his weekend plans, and he still had an English presentation due next week. Playing nice for a few hours couldn’t be that hard.

“One moment Maddie, let me hang up my coat,” Danny finally heard Vlad say. A blue puff of smoke escaped Danny’s mouth. He heard Vlad pause with the handle of the door partially turned. He must have sensed Danny as well. That should make this easier; at least he wouldn’t startle Vlad and end up getting blasted. The door creaked open slowly. Danny reached out, grabbed a handful of pretentious suit, and yanked.

Vlad did not come gracefully. “Daniel, unhand me this instant!” he hissed, grabbing Danny’s wrist and bending it painfully. The temperature of his grip skyrocketed; Danny was certain he was going to have a burn in the shape of Vlad’s hand once this was over. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m helping you!” Danny whispered quickly. It was an effort not to struggle against the painful grip on his arm, but Danny managed. “The stuff works! There’s a forcefield up over the basement that’ll shock you and some kind of Specter Detector sensitive enough to notice when you’re making scary eyes! These guys aren’t messing around, so stop burning me before we get caught!”

Vlad dropped his grip from Danny’s wrist. “So you decided to hide in the closet and hope you caught me in time?” Vlad demanded quietly. At least he seemed to be taking the situation seriously.

Danny rolled his eyes, certain that Vlad would still be able to see the expression in the dark. “You hang your coat up in here every time, fruitloop. It’s the first thing you do, no matter what. Would you rather me mention it out there where thirty ghost hunters could hear me talking about just how much we have in common? That delightful little thing that makes both of us so close? Our mutual hobby?”

Vlad grimaced. Internally, Danny cheered. That was payback for the bondage conversation from a few weeks ago. Turnabout was definitely fair play. “Enough you’ve made your point,” Vlad sighed. “Why didn’t you stop me before I arrived? Now we’re both stuck here.”

“If you think my dad was going to let you miss this then you’re crazier than I thought,” Danny deadpanned. Jack had talked about it nonstop for weeks. Sigma Ecto Omega was his crowning achievement and Vlad had been his second in command. “My plan was to wait in here until they were all too drunk to stand and then sneak out.”

“It’s barely six, no one is drinking yet,” Vlad said. “We can’t wait in here forever, Daniel. Someone is going to notice our absence or worse, walk in on us. Do you know what could happen to me if I’m found in a closet with an underage boy?”

Danny was equal parts amused and disgusted. “Well, you probably wouldn’t be up for reelection,” he laughed uncomfortably. The implication that he and Vlad were doing anything beyond trying to save their own skins was gross, but Danny understood how it would get twisted. As ridiculous as an illicit affair between the two of them was, the truth was even more ridiculous. Two half ghosts caught in a closet during a ghost hunter’s fraternity meeting. No one would buy that.

“I would appeal to a very distasteful niche demographic,” Vlad grumbled. “It’s not funny, Daniel. Let’s get out of here before we’re suspected of anything untoward.”

Easing the door open just a crack, Danny checked to make sure the coast was clear before letting Vlad out. “Now all we have to do is get the heck out of the house,” Danny said. Vlad nodded and the pair made their way back through the house to the front door without incident.

“V-Man! Danny! There you guys are!” Jack shouted as he came lumbering over. They had almost made it, the door was less than three feet away. “Polly was just about to demonstrate her new portable anti-ghost dome. Wait ‘til you see what this thing can do!”

Jack ushered Vlad and Danny back into the living room where a crowd had gathered around a short, plump woman with curly brown hair. “As I was saying,” she began nasally, “My anti-ghost dome not only keeps ghosts out of a given area, it can also be used to trap them inside if need be. Jack and Maddie have generously allowed me to install it on their roof. Observe what happens when I activate it.” The woman pulled out her cell phone and tapped it a few times; Danny couldn’t believe there was an app for that kind of thing. Outside the house, a lilac forcefield descended. Danny could feel it working; he felt cut off from the rest of the street, like there was nothing beyond his front porch despite what his eyes were telling him. Risking a glance at Vlad told Danny that the older halfa was feeling it too; Vlad’s brow was slightly furrowed and his eyes were ever so slightly unfocused. He must have been mentally tapping at the barrier, Danny thought. Vlad turned his attention away from the window and down to Danny, shaking his head slightly. There was no getting out.

Well, there went Plan A.

“And you’re sure it only works on ghosts?” a voice called from the back of the room.

Puffing herself up, Polly exclaimed, “Of course it only works on ghosts! What do you take me for, a Fen-fool?” The correction went over Jack’s head but not everyone else’s. Scattered chuckling broke out in small pockets around the room. Danny sighed; most of the time it was his sabotage that caused his parents to get ridiculed. He genuinely felt bad about ruining their standing in their weird community, although not badly enough to stop. Danny valued his life just a little more than he valued his parents’ dignity. That was hard to remember when people were laughing at them.

“I trust Polly and I think she does darn good work,” Jack cut in, oblivious as usual to what was actually going on around him. “Here, just to prove it I’ll have Danny walk through the dome. That’ll show you.”

Panic seized Danny’s chest, knocking the breath out of him. “Um, dad?” he squeaked. This could not be happening. Not like this. He was about to have his secret not just revealed but put on display while his father literally tried to kill him. “Dad? Don’t you think-”

“Come on Danny, take one for the team,” his dad whispered as he corralled Danny towards the front door. “This is really important for Polly, no one ever takes her seriously! Just hop on out there. It’ll be fine, the barrier only fries ghosts.”

The front door was opened and Danny stood at the edge of the porch. His pulse was hammering in his head and drowning out the noise of the crowd that had assembled behind his dad. This was it, this was how things ended for him. Taking a shuddering breath, Danny moved to take a step off the porch.

An unnaturally warm hand on his shoulder stopped him. “Now Jack,” Vlad admonished gently, “If you really had faith in Polly you would test the device yourself rather than making poor Daniel here into a test subject. Look at the poor boy, he’s shaking like a leaf. You’re the professional here. You should take the risk.”

Danny let Vlad tug him back into the safety of the house. For once when Vlad let his hand linger on Danny’s shoulder the younger halfa didn’t mind so much. He was a little shaken after almost being murdered by his father again and the warmth was comforting.

“Great scott Vladdie you’re right!” Jack declared. Taking a few steps back, Jack leapt out the door. “BONZAI!!!”

Nothing happened. Jack was able to pass back and forth through the purple barrier without any issue. The gathered crowd clapped politely; obviously they had been hoping for something a little more dramatic. Danny wasn’t sorry to disappoint them.

“That was too close,” Vlad murmured so that only Danny could hear. Danny nodded without looking back, pretending to be focused on Polly’s explanation of the device. “Any other brilliant ideas, little badger?”

“I came up with the last two,” Danny replied quietly. “It’s your turn.”

Vlad was quiet for a moment as the two considered their options. There was a barrier around the house that effectively cut them off from the rest of the world. Another barrier covered the basement door preventing them from entering the ghost zone and escaping out Vlad’s portal at the other end. And if they so much as glowed, a dozen different devices would go off and expose them. The odds were not in their favor. Danny was seriously regretting leaving the closet.

“Let’s head down to the lab so we can start comparing those samples,” Maddie suggested. “Danny, be a dear and grab the pinkish vial from the kitchen freezer, would you?”

“Sure mom,” he replied with a sigh. Vlad gave his shoulder a squeeze in what Danny assumed was meant to be a consoling gesture. That was nice, but getting them out of there would have been nicer.

Inching around the crowd, Danny made his way into the kitchen. Only his parents would keep biologic material in the same fridge they stored their food in. The thought made Danny queasy; there was no telling how much ghostly matter he had ingested over the years. Opening the freezer, Danny saw the pink tube sitting on top of the ice tray. Some of the liquid had leaked out into the ice, leaving a pale pink shimmer that looked oddly alluring to Danny. With a sigh, Danny grabbed the whole tray. The ice was ruined, but thankfully it had only been ice. Dumping the cubes into the sink, Danny headed back out to his mom.

The vial was slippery from whatever liquid had escaped. Danny glanced at the label on the bottle; at least his parents kept things labeled. Synthetic Ghost Pheromone Bait. Danny skidded to a halt, nearly tripping over his own feet in shock. “Oh no,” he whined. All his previous ideas about how the day could be ruined flew out the window. **This** was how his life ended. He was covered in sexy ghost smells. Bringing one of his hands up to his face, Danny took a deep breath. Nothing. The liquid didn’t smell like anything. Maybe it was just another instance of his parents’ ineptitude. Maybe, just maybe, he had gotten lucky this time.

“Danny, what’s the hold up?” his mom asked as she walked over. “Where’s the sample?”

“It, um, leaked,” he stuttered, showing her his pink, shimmering hands.

Maddie whisked the vial out of his stunned grip. “I swear, one of these days I’m going to teach your father just how-” she raged momentarily. Danny did not understand his parents’ relationship and he didn’t really want to. His mom was always cleaning up after his dad, fixing his mistakes and consoling his failures. He didn’t doubt that they loved each other; Danny wondered if love was enough to cement a working relationship like his parents strived for. Love was nice, he supposed, but it didn’t seem like a good enough reason to force two completely different personalities into close working quarters. Then again, he was a teenager and therefore knew nothing. Danny tended to prefer things that way. “I’ll take care of this Danny, thank you. Go wash your hands before any nasty ghosts start taking a shine to you.”

Danny gulped. “Mom, why would you even have something like that?” he asked and tried to pretend that his voice wasn’t ridiculously high.

“Research,” she responded vaguely. A crash came from the other room. “That would be your father, excuse me Danny.” Maddie proceeded back out to the gathering as though she hadn’t just dropped a bombshell on her son.

Great. Now on top of being trapped in the middle of a ghost hunters’ convention Danny also had to deal with smelling like spooky catnip. But weirder. He had to get his hands washed immediately. The last thing Danny wanted was the Box Ghost humping his leg like a dog.

Danny spun around to return to the kitchen but in his haste tripped on the carpet. Normally he would have just floated his way out of the fall, but it wasn’t worth the risk. Danny squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself for the inevitable carpet burn.

The pain never came. What he did feel were two strong arms holding him upright. “Careful, little badger,” Vlad admonished. Shit. He had forgotten about Vlad. His mom had been worried about nasty ghosts taking a shine to him and there he was, trapped in the arms of the nastiest ghost of them all.

Danny opened his mouth to explain but the words died in his throat. Vlad had reached up, pupils blown, and was gently stroking the younger halfa’s cheek with his fingertips. The day was going from bad to worse to completely awful. Danny had been holding out hope that the sample was a flop. Obviously he was wrong. Vlad’s eyes flicked red.

As if on cue, a dozen of Sigma Ecto Omega’s finest streamed into the little kitchen. Vlad was knocked into Danny who was knocked into the counter until they were pressed chest to chest. Vlad didn’t seem to mind as much as he should have. So much for ‘appealing to an undesirable niche demographic.’ The way he was staring down at Danny was nowhere near a PG rating.

“I think the ghost went into the hallway!” Danny called around Vlad, thinking quickly.

“WE'VE GOT A RUNNER!” one of the crowed bellowed as they moved en masse out of the room. Despite the extra space, Vlad remained where he was with Danny pinned against the counter. It wasn’t the proximity that was bothering Danny so much (although it should have been); between the fighting and occasional weird moments of not-fighting, Danny had at some point become accustomed to Vlad being in his personal space. No, the uncomfortable part was the reverent way Vlad kept staring at him and petting his face. That was weird and Danny refused to exam his feelings any further. Vlad might have been less awful lately but that didn’t mean that Danny wanted the older man in his personal bubble, gazing at him longingly.

“Daniel, what have you done?” the other man rasped. “You smell-”

“Don’t finish that thought,” Danny interrupted awkwardly. “That vial mom asked me to grab was open. Synthetic Ghost Pheromone Bait, whatever that means.”

“A pheromone is-”

“I’m not an idiot!” Danny snapped. Vlad’s hand had moved from his face and was now carding through his hair. The other hand was clenched firmly at his side. “I know what a pheromone is you condescending jerk. What I don’t know is what they plan to do with it or why they even have it. Do ghosts even have pheromones?”

Vlad hummed and inched closer. Danny put up his hands to stop him but ended up with his appendages trapped awkwardly between them, pressed into Vlad’s surprisingly firm chest. “Ghosts aren’t animals, they don’t rely on such things to find mates. And to my knowledge, neither do we. Although spending a majority of my life as the only one of our kind made that line of inquiry unnecessary.”

Danny coughed uncomfortably. Why couldn’t Vlad ever tell him what he wanted to hear? This was nearly as bad as the ‘do we have souls’ issue. “It can’t be based off of any genetic material of ours. If my parents had found halfa samples they would have never shut up about it.”

“Without actually testing the sample all I can give you is speculation, little badger,” Vlad said gently. “That feels nice.”

“What feels nice?” Danny asked in utter confusion.

“Your hand on my neck.”

To Danny’s complete mortification, one of his hands had migrated from its spot on Vlad’s chest and was gently scratching at the side of the older man’s neck. “What the hell?” he squawked, jerking his hand away. Well, he tried to jerk his hand away. Instead it fell limply onto Vlad’s shoulder. “Vlad? What’s going on?” Then the smell hit him. Vlad smelled _right_. In that moment nothing could have pried Danny away from the older man. Vlad felt like home, like nothing else existed beyond the two of them. If Danny had been prone to dramatics, he might have even said that was he and Vlad had been made for each other.

“Your hands,” Vlad hummed as he pressed his forehead to Danny’s. Up close, his dark blue eyes were almost completely swallowed by the pupil. Danny mindlessly nudge Vlad’s nose with his own and Vlad returned the affection with another hum. “You touched my skin with whatever liquid was in that vial. Now we’re both stuck like this.”

Danny was rapidly failing to see why that was a problem. Vlad was a warm, comforting presence that seemed to wrap all around him. The urge to touch and to allow Vlad to touch was overwhelming. Vlad was his.

Wait. No he wasn’t. Danny screwed his eyes shut. “Little badger?” Danny ignored Vlad and the zing of warmth that followed his words. Vlad was an egotistical psychopath who routinely kicked Danny’s ass. They didn’t get along. Most of the time they didn’t _want_ to get along. Whatever this soft, gooey feeling was couldn’t be him and Vlad. Danny and Vlad (if there even was a Danny and Vlad) were sharp words and wit and scowls and ridiculous insults.

Danny’s eyes snapped open. “Shower,” Danny declared as he ducked out from under Vlad’s grasp. “We have to wash it off.”

Danny barely managed three steps before Vlad wrapped himself around his back. “It won’t do any good,” he purred. “It’s a chemical reaction. You can’t get rid of me that easily, Daniel.”

“Snap out of it, fruitloop,” Danny gritted as he unwillingly found himself leaning back into the embrace. Vlad pulled him flush against his chest with one arm wrapped around his waist and the other across his torso. His grip was firm enough that Danny couldn’t escape but not so much that the younger halfa felt strangled. It almost felt like Vlad was trying to pull Danny into himself; he wondered how different this would be if they could safely access their powers.

“I don’t want to,” Vlad said simply.

Taking a deep breath, Danny tried to calm his frazzled nerves. He had to assess the situation rationally despite the part of his brain screaming at him to let Vlad have his way. They were trapped in his house during an anti-ghost fanclub meeting and Vlad had decided that Danny was his new boy toy. Okay, that was pretty bad. What were his options? Well, the first thing he had to do was get Vlad away from the rest of the gathering. His tenure as mayor would be over if they were discovered. If it was Danny’s parents who found them then Vlad was a dead man. As Vlad nuzzled the back of Danny’s head, Danny once again wondered what he had done to deserve this life.

“Okay,” he began haltingly. Vlad was pretty much useless at the moment but he was technically an adult. Adults could deal with boundaries and stuff, right? “We’re going to have to hide in my room.”

“Oooh Daniel, how forward of you.”

After this was all over Danny was going to kill Vlad. “I’m not that kind of girl, fruitloop,” he snapped.

“Girl, boy…it’s rather irrelevant,” Vlad replied with a gentle squeeze. Danny blushed at the pleased note in Vlad’s voice. Well that was a little more insight into the man’s personal life than Danny had ever expected to get.

“You know what I meant. Now let go of me so I can sneak you past my parents and up into my room.”

Danny knew he had been setting himself up with that one but instead of taking the bait Vlad started laughing. Honest, genuine laughter. Danny couldn’t remember ever hearing Vlad laugh like that before. Chuckling sure, Vlad had like sixteen different chuckles ranging from maniacal to affectionate. Danny sort of hated himself for knowing that. But the rich laughter that Vlad was currently bestowing on him was new. It was…nice. Hearing Vlad so openly amused was nice. And feeling it through his chest from where they were pressed together wasn’t bad either.

“You have a nice laugh,” Danny blurted before his brain could stop him. Of course his filter had decided to desert him. Stupid pheromone.

If anything this seemed to make Vlad even more amused. “Thank you,” he rumbled into Danny’s hair. “Now, what was that you were saying about not being that type of girl?”

“Laugh it up Vlad. Once this wears off I’ll be the one getting the last laugh,” Danny retorted. That was the light at the end of the tunnel: Vlad’s utter mortification. Thankfully, Vlad let Danny disentangle himself without any fuss. Just because he didn’t think Vlad would let them separate completely, Danny threaded the fingers of one of his hands through Vlad’s. It wasn’t as if he actually liked how warm Vlad was or needed the reassuring contact or anything. No, holding hands was entirely for Vlad’s benefit.

Poking his head into the living room, Danny was relieved to see that the party had moved down into the lab. Tugging on a disturbingly compliant Vlad, the duo made their way through the living room and up the stairs. Just as they reached the top, a voice called from the lab, “Hey, has anyone seen Danny and V-man? They’d love this! Lemme see if they’re still upstairs.”

“My dad!” Danny hissed. Yanking on Vlad’s arm, Danny sprinted the rest of the way down the hall and into the sanctity of his bedroom. Danny practically threw Vlad into the room before slamming the door shut and collapsing back into it. That was too close.

Suddenly Danny found himself pinned to the door, arms above his head. “Finally,” Vlad purred as he ran his nose along the side of Danny’s face. Okay, **that** was too close. “Just you and me now, little badger.”

“Vlad!” he squeaked as the older man pressed closer. “I didn’t bring you up here to-”

“Let me have my wicked way with you?” Vlad asked lightly. “Pity. You’re so attractive when you’re flushed.” Teeth scraped gently along Danny’s jaw and his brain shorted out.

Danny tilted his head back, granting Vlad more access which the older man immediately took advantage of by slowly kissing down the side of Danny’s neck. Sighing, Danny sagged into the door behind him contentedly. This was nice. Vlad was nice. Maybe, Danny thought through the haze of pleasure, letting Vlad have his way wasn’t such a bad idea.

Vlad inched closer and began peppering Danny’s face with little kisses. It was amazing how playful Vlad could be, under the right circumstances. Now if Vlad would just let his arms go so he could return the-

No. Vlad was under the influence of some foreign substance. Danny couldn’t take advantage of him like that. That thought jerked Danny out of the warm, fuzzy headspace that Vlad’s ministrations had put him in. He shouldn’t want to take advantage of Vlad like that. Right? Right. Because Vlad was evil and like thirty years older than him and-

Vlad chose that moment to bite ever so lightly on Danny’s earlobe. Danny let out a whine that he didn’t know he was capable of. It had to be the work of the pheromone. All of this was because of the pheromone, Vlad didn’t actually want him. “Vlad, stop,” he panted as he tried to break free of the pheromone’s effect once more.

Vlad seemed inordinately pleased. “Stop?” he asked with a feral grin. Releasing Danny’s wrists, Vlad trailed his almost too warm hands down Danny’s chest. The other halfa gripped Danny’s hips gently. “We’ve barely begun.”

“This is a bad idea.”

“Isn’t it?” Vlad purred. Gripping Danny’s hips more firmly, Vlad pulled Danny away from the door and into his chest. Danny instinctively wrapped his arms around Vlad’s neck. He must have had a growth spurt recently, he realized absently, because Danny was now eyelevel with Vlad’s chin. He didn’t remember when that happened. “You’re going to ruin me.”

“I don’t want to be the one responsible for you being labeled a pedophile and kicked out of office, I don’t need that kind of attention in my life. This is the pheromone talking.”

Vlad’s thumbs slipped under Danny’s shirt and began making small circles on his skin. “Always so noble,” Vlad teased as he pressed their foreheads together. Danny’s eyes unwillingly slipped shut. Touching Vlad, just being close to him, felt unfathomably good. It was the same warm weight of a nap in the sun. “Would it be so awful if you gave in? Just this once?”

“It’s like you don’t even know who you’re talking to.”

Giving into Vlad was anathema to everything Danny stood for. Danny should have shoved him away, fought Vlad like he had for the past three years. The Fenton Thermos was on his desk, all he had to do was capture Vlad and keep him locked up until the pheromone wore off.

That’s what he should have done. Instead, to the astonishment of both of them, Danny tilted his head to the side and rubbed his cheek against Vlad’s slightly rougher one. Remembering the incident in his kitchen from a few weeks earlier, Danny nosed gently at the shell of Vlad’s ear. The sudden hitch in Vlad’s breathing made Danny grin. Two could play at this game.

“What was that about not giving in?” Vlad teased. His hands migrated from Danny’s waist around to his lower back under his shirt. “Shouldn’t you be throwing me off, screaming at how my very presence has tainted you?”

“It’s almost like you enjoy shooting yourself in the foot,” Danny remarked, ducking his head to try nibbling on Vlad’s neck. Danny didn’t really have a clue what he was doing but it wasn’t hard to figure out; Vlad’s breathing started getting irregular when he hit certain spots so he kept nipping and kissing until the hands on his back were too hot for comfort. “I mean, you sorta convince me to go along with this and then you start trying to talk me out of it. But yeah, I’m the stupid one here.”

“You’ve never been particularly-”

Danny interrupted what was undoubtedly a scathing statement about his intelligence with a swift lick to the shell of Vlad’s ear. The older man whimpered, actually and honestly whimpered. “What is up with you and your ears?” Danny murmured delightedly. On a whim he took the earlobe into his mouth and gently tugged on it with his lips. Danny could feel Vlad’s nearly closed piercings and wondered yet again when the man had ever worn earrings. The hands on Danny’s back were scorching hot now and pressing hard against his skin. Vlad was panting; Danny was obviously doing something right. The idea that he had crossed a line that maybe he shouldn’t have never occurred to the young halfa. All he cared about was this newfound permission to touch and be touched.

“It’s called an erogenous zone,” Vlad said breathlessly in answer to Danny’s mostly rhetorical question. Danny released the ear and blew on it gently. Vlad growled and suddenly Danny found himself pinned to the door again, this time with his face to the door and Vlad as a column of pure heat at his back. “You’re literally playing with fire, little badger.”

“Well then calm down before someone catches us,” Danny retorted. “That stupid Specter Detector wasn’t messing around. The last thing we need is you giving me the scary eyes and everyone bursting in here.”

“Calm down?” Vlad repeated mockingly. “Let’s see how easy it is for you to calm down, little badger.”

“Ears don’t do it for me, sorry.”

“Something will.”

With that ominous promise, Vlad began a slow examination of Danny’s body. Backing up slightly to give himself room, Vlad dragged his hands down Danny’s chest over his shirt, pressing firmly and massaging what little muscle Danny had. It felt wonderful but not in a ‘lose control of my powers and out us’ sort of way. Ever since the accident, Danny had limited his physical interactions with other people out of fear they’d discover his secret. He always felt cold and had an unfortunate habit of falling through solid objects. The only contact he ever had outside of fighting were the scattered hugs from Sam and Jazz, his dad’s habit of physically pushing people around, and Vlad’s stupid tendency to rest his hand on Danny’s shoulder. Somewhere along the line, between the fighting and increasingly frequent instances of not-fighting, Vlad had become the person who touched Danny the most.

Vlad was taking his permission to touch seriously. After feeling all over Danny’s torso until the younger halfa was nearly blissed out, Vlad began mouthing at the back of Danny’s neck. Dropping his head forward to rest against the door, Danny sighed, “Okay, that’s nice.”

Vlad made a contemplative noise. “Just nice? I’m aiming for toe-curling,” he said before redoubling his efforts.

That forced a breathless chuckle out of Danny. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out. We can’t all be as easy as you.”

“You’re a teenager, you’re supposed to be easy by nature,” Vlad groused.

“What can I say, I have ice in my veins.”

Vlad grinned against the back of his neck. It was nice to be able to make Vlad smile and laugh. Danny knew that he had precious little of both in his life. Making Vlad happy, just for a little while, seemed like the right thing to do. Especially if he kept up whatever he was doing to Danny’s neck.

Apparently bored with his current ministrations, Vlad suddenly nipped lightly at one of the thicker muscles that ran up the back of his neck. Danny went rigid as his breath abandoned him. That felt good. That had felt _really_ good. Too good. Vlad wasn’t supposed to have found a weak spot like that. Danny didn’t even know he had a weakness like that; one little bite had his toes curling in his socks.

Unfortunately, Vlad was a keen observant. “My my my,” he drawled, satisfaction seeming to roll off him in waves. “What’s this?”

“Um,” Danny stuttered, “An involuntary reaction due to external stimuli?”

Instead of replying, Vlad bit down hard on the back of Danny’s neck. For a moment, Danny saw spots. Then the pleasure hit him like a truck, zinging through his body and making his nerves sing. How had he not known that about himself?

“That’s more like it,” Vlad rumbled before sinking his teeth into the meat where shoulder met neck. For Danny, up until this point everything had been relatively innocent. Sure, it was a little weird letting Vlad wrap around him like a second skin and kiss all over his face. And messing with Vlad’s ears when he knew what that did to the older man was a little risky. But Danny was enjoying the sluggish pleasure Vlad’s attention had caused. He felt warm and welcome. Now though, with Vlad moving sharply up and down the back of his neck, Danny felt his knees going weak. This had not been part of the plan.

“Vlad,” he whimpered. There were things going on below his belt that were Not Okay. Suddenly, the mouth on the back of his neck disappeared. Danny barely had time to register the absence before he was unceremoniously hefted over Vlad’s shoulder. “VLAD!”

“Calm down, little badger. We wouldn’t want anyone hearing you and coming up to check on us,” Vlad said conspiratorially. He knew Danny wouldn’t jeopardize his position, which was strange because Danny hadn’t even realized it himself until that moment. Before he could over examine that new thought, Danny found himself on his stomach in the middle of his bed. “That’s better.”

Vlad straddled the back of Danny’s thighs and bent down to once more latch onto that pale neck. The previous marks had already faded, Danny was sure. Vlad was going to have to try harder if he wanted them to stay visible for any length of time. “This would be so much more enjoyable with our powers,” Vlad mused. Danny hummed in agreement. “I wouldn’t have to worry about straining my back, for one.

“And I could bite you much harder. I’d have my fangs.”

Danny whimpered and his hips made an aborted jerking motion into the mattress underneath him. Plasmius’ teeth looked _sharp_. The thought should have been off putting but all Danny could think of was the pleasurable sting as those fangs dug into his neck, not quite breaking the skin. Well, maybe just a little…

“Would you like that, Daniel?” Vlad purred into his ear. Danny nodded frantically. “Yes, I thought you might. I should have known you’d like a little pain with your pleasure. If we had our powers I would hold you down, pin you against the wall. You’d struggle, because that’s what you always do. But this time, you wouldn’t really mean it. You could get away, if you wanted to, but you don’t. I notice, of course. How flushed you are, how heavily you’re breathing. You’re so easy to read sometimes, my little badger. I’d thread my fingers through your hair and pull hard, exposing your soft throat.”

Fingers dug into Danny’s hair just the way Vlad was describing and yanked. Danny moaned, completely caught up in the fantasy.

“I’d drag my fangs across your pale skin, lightly at first. Whatever front you had been putting up vanishes. You know you’ve been caught. I know what you want. And I just might be inclined to give it to you,” he whispered. Vlad dragged his slightly parted lips from the base of Danny’s neck up to behind his ear and back. His lower lip dragged torturously, not even hinting at the teeth that were safely tucked away. Danny whined in frustration. He was so close.

“Oh yes, I would definitely give you what you want,” Vlad murmured. “But not today.”

Danny’s face flopped down into the mattress as Vlad let go of his grip on his hair and rolled off Danny completely. Groaning into the bedding, Danny tried not to scream in frustration. Why had he expected Vlad to be anything but a colossal, selfish sadist?

“Now who needs to calm down?” Vlad chuckled darkly. Danny mustered up enough energy to turn his head to the side and glare. Sitting up against the headboard looking perfectly at ease, Vlad stared back in sadistic amusement. “Turnabout has always been fair play, remember Daniel?”

That was how things had always been between them. Tit for tat, this for that, always pushing things just a little too far. Vlad’s experience and temper matched by Danny’s luck and sheer tenacity. Danny had gotten Vlad a little riled up so Vlad had to completely wreck Danny. In retrospect, Danny should have seen it coming. The pheromone might have shorted out their common sense and eliminated certain inhibitions, but their personalities were still intact.

“How much longer are gunna to be stuck like this?” Danny grumbled as he wriggled up and planted himself firmly into Vlad’s side. Wrapping his arms around Vlad’s waist, Danny tucked his head into the older man’s chest. The all-consuming need to touch Vlad was still pounding through his veins but that didn’t mean he had to look at the smug bastard.

Warm fingers threaded through Danny’s hair. The gesture seemed almost…apologetic. “I don’t know,” Vlad admitted as he began to stroke Danny’s head. It felt nice, so Danny nuzzled a little further into the firm chest under his cheek. “I hadn’t expected you to be so pliant, Daniel.”

“I’m not,” he retorted out of habit.

“Really? Then what do you call this?”

“I don’t know man, the pheromone? All I know is that when you touch me I get all warm and fuzzy inside. I hadn’t expected you to be so affectionate, drugged or not. This has to be killing you, sitting here petting me.”

“I should find the notion distasteful,” Vlad admitted slowly. “In regards to your presence, at least. As for being affectionate, well, there’s a great deal you don’t know about me, Daniel.”

Danny opened his mouth to argue that he knew a lot about Vlad, more than most, but then decided it wasn’t worth it. For once, he didn’t want to argue. Besides, telling Vlad everything he knew about the older halfa could be tipping his hand. Danny had no idea if knowing about Vlad’s ear piercings or what his core looked like or how he took his coffee would be important in a later fight. So in the interest of self-preservation alone, Danny told himself, he would let this one slide.

“See? Completely passive,” Vlad chuckled smugly. In retaliation, or as much retaliation as he could manage in his current state, Danny jerked on Vlad’s stupid white shirt until it came untucked. He then proceeded to slide his cool hand under the material, stroking gently at the soft skin he found.

“Daniel,” Vlad warned, barely resisting the urge to flash his eyes. Now it was Danny’s turn to laugh. “Behave.”

“I’ve been a paragon of good behavior the entire time,” Danny argued. “ **I** fought off the pheromone, **I** got us away from the killer party downstairs, **I** -”

“If you think nibbling at my ears until I wanted to ravish you can be considered good behavior-”

That interruption earned Vlad a pinch to the soft skin right on top of the jut of his hipbone. “I’m a teenager under the effects of another one of my parents’ life ruining experiments, what’s your excuse? You pinned me to my own bed and whispered in my ear until I nearly came in my pants. You have been less than helpful all day. So yeah between the two of us? It’s a no brainer. I’m handling this way better than you are.”

They were silent for a few minutes after that declaration. Vlad’s hand never faltered as he gently carded through Danny’s hair. Danny, lost in his own thoughts, absently drew little circles on Vlad’s skin with his fingertips. He really should be fighting the pheromone off and trying to escape. Once the effects wore off and reality reasserted itself, Vlad was going to skin him alive. After he completed whatever studies that crazed villains perform on the only other member of their species, Vlad would probably sell his pelt to Skulker.

“Little badger, I-” Vlad began tentatively.

Danny wasn’t really interested in hearing it. “Let’s just not, okay Vlad?” he said with a heavy sigh. “Let’s just lay here, as well behaved as the two of us are capable, and wait it out. I’m just, I can’t- UGH. Just shut up and keep petting me.”

“As you wish,” Vlad murmured. His compliance was surprising.

Danny had no idea how long he laid there curled around Vlad, soaking in whatever affection Vlad was willing to give him. The older halfa alternated occasionally between petting his hair, stroking his cheek, and playing with the hand that wasn’t occupied at Vlad’s waist. Danny dozed lightly, refusing to think about anything in particular.

“Could I really have made you climax with my voice alone?” Vlad quietly inquired sometime later.

“Shut up, don’t make it weird,” Danny slurred drowsily. When Vlad didn’t say anything, Danny cracked an eye open to look up at him. He immediately regretted it. Vlad was staring down at him with something a little too close to wonder. Groaning, Danny hid his face in Vlad’s chest once more. He shouldn’t have looked. Vlad shouldn’t ever look at him like that, like he actually was enjoying being so close to Danny. Forgetting the look of gentle awe on Vlad’s face was going to be impossible.

“Shhhh, it’s okay little badger,” Vlad cooed. “It’s going to be okay.” Vlad shifted so that he was no longer sitting upright against the headboard but rather was lying down on top of Danny’s favorite pillow. Danny found himself pulled down as well until his face was pressed into the crook of Vlad’s neck. Vlad held him close, almost like he was afraid Danny would try struggling to get away. As if Danny could manage that in his current state; Danny had no desire to go anywhere. “Go to sleep.”

Not needing to be told twice, Danny wrapped himself a little tighter around Vlad. Slipping his hand once more under Vlad’s shirt, Danny fell asleep to the gentle rhythm of Vlad’s breathing and fingers dragging lightly through his hair. If he felt a pair of lips press momentarily to the top of his head, well, that could be written off as nothing more than a dream.

* * *

 

Warm. There was something warm in his bed. That wasn’t right, Danny thought sluggishly. He hadn’t woken up warm in months. But something wrapped around him was radiating a gentle heat. It was nice, Danny decided. He curled in closer to it, tangling his legs with it until whatever it was had been completely intertwined with him. Humming in satisfaction, Danny let his mind wander aimlessly. Sleep was calling him again.

Whatever the warm thing was moved. Not quickly, or very much. Just a slight twitch, followed by another. Then it shifted. Danny realized he was partially on top of the warmth when it tried to move in earnest. Whining wordlessly, Danny buried his face down into the firm thing beneath him. He didn’t want to wake up yet.

“Daniel please,” a voice whispered urgently. Danny could feel the slight rumble of the words under his cheek. “You have to move before someone finds us.”

“No,” he groaned petulantly. Danny felt pleasantly warm all over. He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept so well or woken up feeling so refreshed. “Shut up.”

Stupid Vlad, always trying to tell him what to do. How dare Vlad wake him up after everything that had happened-

The night before. Shit.

Danny’s eyes snapped open. The first thing he saw was Vlad’s rumpled white shirt under his cheek. Tilting his head back and expecting the worst, Danny met Vlad’s gaze. Instead of murderous intent, Vlad looked slightly frazzled. His hair had fallen out of his usual ponytail and had bunched oddly. Without thinking, Danny reached up and straightened a few of the strands framing the older man’s face. He looked so much softer with his hair down.

It took Danny a moment to figure out what he had done before snatching his hand back. “Sorry,” he muttered in embarrassment. The pheromone had worn off. Danny had to get off of Vlad before the older man started kicking his ass. And because Danny absolutely didn’t want to stay pressed up against his archenemy, right? Right. Because that would be weird. No matter how warm Vlad was or how good the stroking hand on his back felt.

Hand on his back? Danny tensed involuntarily. Vlad was still petting him. Why was Vlad petting him?

Apparently sensing Danny’s distress, Vlad immediately froze. “I was just…” Vlad trailed off, looking for a way to justify his actions.

Danny waited but when no explanation came he suggested, “We should probably get up? Before my parents find us?”

“That’s what I was trying to suggest before you so rudely told me to shut up. Again,” Vlad said irritably. “That has become an increasingly frequent occurrence. I wouldn’t suggest continuing it.”

“Oh bite me,” Danny snapped without thinking as he stretched, ignoring the way the movement pressed his body so nicely against Vlad’s warmer one. Yep, totally ignoring those feelings.

“You would enjoy that, wouldn’t you?” Vlad countered. Danny choked. Now every time Danny told Vlad to bite him all he would be able to think of was this. Sensing he had the upper hand, Vlad flipped Danny around so that he was suddenly trapped under Vlad’s larger frame. His eyes glowed red. Danny could see the tips of his fangs poking out as the older man grinned. “Would you like me to bite you, Daniel? Sink my teeth into the tender flesh of your neck over and over until you’re a writhing mess?”

“Oh god yes,” Danny blurted without thinking then immediately regretted it. Why would he say something like that? Vlad’s smug expression fell from his face. In its place was something that looked a little too much like fear for Danny’s comfort. That was a line Danny had no business crossing, even though Vlad had totally crossed it first.

A knock at the door scared both of them out of their horrified stupor. “Pretend you’re asleep,” Danny hissed as he slid out from under Vlad. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Danny opened the door. “Hey mom. What’s up?”

“We were just about to head out for breakfast and wanted to- is that Vlad in your bed?” his mom asked. Thankfully she didn’t sound suspicious. Why would she sound suspicious? There was nothing going on, everything was perfectly fine. “How did Vlad end up in your room, sweetie? Nobody was staying in the guest room.”

“We, uh, didn’t know that?” Danny stuttered. It wasn’t technically a lie. Yet. “Vlad was pretty much down for the count so I let him sleep in my room. No big deal.”

“Well I’m proud of you. I know you and Vlad had some tension when you first met, but it’s nice to see you two getting along so well these days.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Danny agreed vaguely. If his mom hadn’t interrupted when she did the two of them might have started ‘getting along’ a little _too_ well. Without the pheromone to blame, Danny was adrift in uncharted waters. He had no idea what he was doing or even why he was doing it. Thinking of the pheromone, Danny asked, “Hey mom, what did you end up doing with the rest of that ghost pheromone?”

“It’s locked up down in the lab, don’t you worry,” she assured, ruffling his hair affectionately. That was hardly reassuring; Danny had to destroy it so he never accidentally touched it ever again.

“So I’m okay? I don’t have to worry about ghosts trying to use my leg like the neighbor’s Chihuahua?”

“Oh Danny no!” she chuckled. “Wrong kind of pheromone. The one we had synthesized is for reducing hostility so we could catch a live ghost and study it. All it does is chemically repress certain adrenalin responses.”

Danny felt the color drain from his face. “So it doesn’t-?” he asked vaguely, not willing to use specifics with his mother. Specifics like Vlad’s mouth on his neck and hands under his shirt for apparently no discernable reason.

“Nope, just represses hostilities. Vlad and I had been talking about how much easier it would be to-”

“WAIT,” Danny interrupted. His heart was thumping erratically in his chest. “Vlad knew?”

“Sure, he’s the one who synthesized the base for us. Danny are you okay? You’re looking really pale,” his mom said, reaching over to check his forehead. “Well, you don’t have a fever. I think you should climb back into bed. We’ll bring you back some breakfast, okay?”

“Thanks mom,” he said absently. Danny closed the door in a daze. His pulse was thundering in his head. If the substance had been a suppressor then…and Vlad had known? The entire time?

Vlad had rolled over when he heard the door close. He was staring up grimly at Danny. “Little badger, let me explain-”

“No,” Danny whispered, then repeated it more loudly, “NO. That wasn’t, we couldn’t have…We wouldn’t have. Not without the pheromone. Right?”

Danny was desperate for Vlad to reassure him, to tell him that his parents had fucked up yet another experiment. There was no way that Danny would have ever let Vlad touch him like that without being under the influence. Vlad would never have wanted him like that otherwise. It wasn’t simply a matter of it being wrong; it was _impossible_. They hated each other. They **enjoyed** hating each other.

“Right?” Danny repeated again, voice cracking with fear. It all had to be a cruel misunderstanding. Vlad was an evil bastard but even he wouldn’t take advantage of Danny.

“No,” Vlad sighed. Danny suddenly couldn’t breathe. “I knew it what the chemical was. I helped develop it, after all. But then you had gotten it on your hands and all of my reasoning left me. For a few glorious hours I could touch you, hold you, and you’d let me because I supposedly wasn’t in my right mind. I didn’t have to worry about you thinking less of me for this terrible indiscretion because you already think so little of me. It was perfect.

“Until you touched my skin with the pheromone. I hadn’t expected you to react in such a way. I let things get much farther out of hand than I ought to have. I’ve never had much self-control. If I want something I tend to take it by whatever means necessary. And to have you wrap yourself around me like that because you wanted to be there…I was too weak to resist. The fault is mine alone, Daniel.”

“Get out,” Danny ordered. He was shaking though from fear or rage he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Little badger-”

“Don’t call me that!” Danny shouted. Rage was definitely winning out. Danny felt betrayed which meant at some point he had started trusting Vlad. He should have known better, should never have allowed himself to be in such a position. “You knew, the entire time! And you let me-we almost-”

“But we didn’t!” Vlad cut in angrily as he struggled out of Danny’s bed. A hysterical giggle nearly burst out of Danny; he had spent the night in bed with Vlad. This was the awkward morning after. “I wouldn’t have let it go that far.”

“It went far enough though didn’t it?” Danny snapped. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“I already told you I wasn’t,” Vlad retorted. Another time Danny might have been amused at how Vlad looked, with his rumpled shirt untucked and his hair sticking up all over the place. That was part of the problem; Danny shouldn’t care how Vlad looked. Danny was supposed to hate him blindly. “I seldom do when you’re involved. I swear, little badger-”

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” Danny bellowed. Vlad tried to stare him down with angry red eyes but Danny refused to back down. He was hurt and uncomfortable; he had a right to lash out. “You don’t get to call me that anymore. I can’t believe I trusted you! Not much, but it was there. I should have known better. I should have let you get fried yesterday. I shouldn’t have messed with your core. I should have just ignored you and let things stay the way they were. Well, thanks for the reminder of how awful you are. Now get out.”

Vlad opened his mouth to argue Danny could sense the confrontation coming. Danny was furious enough to take Vlad on; the older halfa wouldn’t be getting the better of him ever again.

Instead, Vlad sort of collapsed in on himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When they opened again they were no longer red; resigned blue eyes stared back at Danny. “Given the circumstances, I will capitulate to your demands,” he said monotonously. This was unexpected. “I crossed a line. It won’t happen again.”

“You won’t have the opportunity for it to happen again,” Danny growled.

Vlad nodded a few times in agreement before cautiously making his way past Danny to the bedroom door. Danny was so jumpy that he actually jerked back as Vlad passed him. There was no mistaking Vlad’s flinch at his reaction, but what did the older man expect? A hug good bye?

“I won’t say I’m sorry for what I did,” Vlad offered as he passed over the threshold and into the hall. “You mean a great deal to me, Daniel. Perhaps too much. But ask yourself this: are you angry at me for what I did, or at yourself for your own reaction?”

Without waiting for a response, Vlad disappeared down the hall. As soon as the coast was clear, Danny threw himself onto the bed he had been sharing with Vlad only hours before. What had Vlad been thinking? Danny was a minor, and male, and at least thirty years his junior. Sure, Vlad was impulsive and selfish, but he always considered the outcomes of his actions. Vlad played a long game and had a fine grasp on all possible ramifications. He had to have known what would happen if Danny found out about his ‘wants.’ There was no reason for Vlad to want Danny in any capacity. It was horrifying. Disgusting. Wrong.

Almost as wrong as how Danny had felt, pinned to the bed with teeth at his throat begging for more. If Vlad hadn’t come to his senses and backed off they might have gone farther. The thought wasn’t as repulsive as it should have been. Vlad wasn’t far off when he mentioned Danny’s fear of his own reaction. This was uncharted, unwanted territory.

Danny’s life was awful enough; he didn’t need an illegal, mutual attraction to his arch-nemesis the mayor. That was so far beyond the realm of normalcy, even by Danny’s standards, that he was developing a headache.

Vlad had backed off, however temporarily. Danny knew from experience how tenacious Vlad could be when he wanted something. Danny was just going to have to be more careful. A few nonviolent interactions with Vlad had made him complacent. Well, Danny wasn’t about to make that mistake again.


End file.
